Welcome to HTeX!

High Tech Elementary Explorer is an independent public school, founded in 2000, which serves 350 children in grades K-5 who are enrolled by lottery from throughout San Diego. Explorer’s mission is to develop critical thinkers who are caring, confident and lifelong learners in a diverse community that is sensitive to the needs of each child.

Academic studies at Explorer take the form of projects, which engage students in research, content learning, field studies, and exhibitions. During project work, students engage in challenging and open-ended questions that are important to them and to the adult world. Students’ work culminates in products and presentations that have an authentic audience, often beyond the school’s walls. Explorer teachers seek out student passions in order to design rich learning experiences, both in content and in social and emotional interactions. Explorer students see school as a place where they can ask big questions, where they can collaborate and create, and where they work to change the world.

Explorer’s focus on social and emotional learning combined with project-based learning has profound academic impacts. In writing, for example, children find and use their authentic voice. In history, children see and analyze differing perspectives. In science, children analyze a problem, hypothesize a solution, and test the solution with evidence – the same way their teachers teach them to solve a problem on the playground. Just as in social and emotional development, rote academic learning can be superficial and fleeting. Learning, both emotional and cognitive, that is rooted in rigorous analysis of self, others, texts, and data can be longer lasting, deeper and flexible.

Teachers are the most important element in a child’s education. Explorer teachers are reflective practitioners who create their own curriculum, weave together social, emotional, and intellectual learning, and collaborate to build the school wide culture and practices that make Explorer the unique school that it is.

Explorer never could have started nor would it have survived, were it not for the support and involvement of its extraordinary parent body. Parents are partners in their child’s education and, alongside of our faculty, form a foundation from which our school has grown and flourished.

We welcome you to our website to learn more about our mission, classroom projects, and best practices. For parents, more detailed and up to date information about school events may be posted on our Parent Council website.